Amador County – The Amador County Local Agency Formation Commission yesterday announced a couple of items that it will be hearing at its December 18th meeting. Besides that, LAFCO also expects possible “sphere of influence” adjustments from Ione, Plymouth and Sutter Creek. Two smaller jurisdictions are on the December 18th agenda. Executive Officer Roseanne Chamberlain said LAFCO’s board of directors will consider adopting “resolutions making determinations and setting a LAFCO initiated sphere of influence” for two local government agencies. She said County Service Area 8 would have a sphere “coterminous with its district boundaries.” CSA Number 8 is a well in the Carbondale area. Chamberlain said Amador County set up the district as a kind of financing vehicle so that U.S. Tile can purchase water for use at its roofing tile plant. LAFCO will also consider the sphere of influence of Sunset Heights Community Services District. She said that sphere is also coterminous with the boundary area, plus two parcels already assessed and receiving service. She said those two parcels already pay membership to Sunset Heights.

The meeting will also include updating information on new laws governing Community Service Districts. Chamberlain said CSAs must now be identified, so the public can know what they do and who they serve. Resolutions by LAFCO will identify service areas and tell what powers they have. Chamberlain said Tuesday she expected Sutter Creek’s application for the annexation of Sutter Hill East any time now. She has already had a pre-application meeting with Sutter Creek’s administration. She also expects a new Sphere of Influence adjustment from Plymouth, maybe early next year, as the city is updating its General Plan. Ione also is updating its General Plan and she said likely would also adjust its sphere of influence, as both are planning tools and are normally looked at simultaneously. LAFCO next meets December 18th in the County Administration Building in Jackson. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County - The Amador County Recreation Agency celebrated the county’s newest flying disc golf course with a two-day tournament last weekend. The Kennedy Mine Fall Classic drew 44 contestants from around the region for 4 rounds of competitive disc golfing in a Professional Disc Golf Association sanctioned event. Long-time professional disc golfer and pioneer Charlie Callahan was tournament director and introduced rules for first-timers and also some of the long-time players. Several local players came out in the upper places in some divisions. Former Jackson Resident Ron “Skull” Brown turned a narrow, 1-stroke lead into a blowout in the Professional Master Division, shooting 8-under par in the final round Sunday to take first place. Ray Birch of Ione, who won the state championship in the Amateur Masters Division this past year, was 6 strokes behind to take second place in Pro Masters. Brandon Sy of Sacramento and a member of the Orangevale Disc Golf Club won the Open Pro division. Sy shot a 186, good for 30 strokes under par. Matt Werley was second with a 192 and Joe Forest of Kirkwood was third with a 197.

The course was designed by Callahan, Ray Birch, Jim Reece and Brandon Wedge. Local companies donated the construction work to dig holes for the golf baskets, which are steel baskets mounted on pipes. The construction company owners poured concrete on the hills around Kennedy Mine to set sleeves in the ground and make the course permanent. It is a private park, owned by the Kennedy Mine Foundation, and it will have playing by appointment, with tentative hours set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The Amador County Recreation Agency is seeking volunteers to help staff the Saturday and Sunday disc golf days. Parking is 2 dollars and a map of the course is 5 dollars. For information, call 223-6373 during business hours. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County - The official results of the November 4th election in Amador County are in. Registrar Sheldon Johnson certified the election last Wednesday, November 19th, and the Amador County Board of Supervisors set a special meeting for Wednesday, November 26th, to accept the canvassing of the election and to declare those who were elected to office. Elections Supervisor Debbie Smith said the special meeting was called because the Supervisors had already canceled the board meeting because of Thanksgiving. Unless the Board has some objection, the final tally solidifies the standing of the candidates. In the two closest city council races in Jackson and Plymouth, candidates won by a matter of votes. Marilyn Lewis beat out Alfred Nunes for the third available Jackson council seat by only 12 votes. The other two seats will go to Wayne Garibaldi with a landslide 1,259 votes and Keith Sweet with 859 votes. In Plymouth, incumbent Greg Baldwin held on to his seat and was the third highest vote-getter with 201 votes to challenger Maria Nunez’s 198. The other seats up for grabs will be held by incumbent Mayor Jon Colburn with 264 votes and Patricia Shackleton with 240 votes. Mary Walser, Wally Upper and Janelle Redkey are the winners for school board. Debbie Dunn, Bill Condrashoff, Don Cooper and Gary Thomas all won by large margins in the race for Amador Water District Directors. Only one current AWA member will remain on the Board. Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County - Amador County is among a number of California regions to benefit from $15 million in job training grants allocated to assist regions hardest hit by the economic downturn. Governor Schwarzenegger's office announced the grants just as California’s unemployment rate jumped to 8.2 percent, its highest level in 14 years. “I have urged the Legislature to pass an economic stimulus package that includes workplace reforms to help keep jobs in California and ways to speed up the release of billions of in-the-pipeline infrastructure and construction dollars into our economy,” said Schwarzenegger in a statement released Saturday.

He also announced $18.4 million in job grants targeted for veterans. A portion of the $15 million will go towards select areas impacted by major layoffs and business closures. The majority will go to Workforce Investment Areas, or WIAs, in regions with the highest unemployment rates. The Motherlode WIA, which serves Amador, Calaveras, Mariposa and Tuolumne counties will get 75,669 dollars. The Sacramento WIA receives 546,356 dollars. The Golden Sierra WIA, serving El Dorado, Alpine and Placer counties, will get 135,070 dollars. “These grants will provide education, training, and job placement assistance for thousands of Californians,” Schwarzenegger said. The Governor said he was pleased that President Bush signed an extension of unemployment benefits that his administration had pushed so hard for, adding, “so that Californians out of work can continue to receive their benefits through the holiday season.” Schwarzenegger reiterated what he sees as an immediate need to shore up our state's Unemployment Insurance Fund. “I have proposed a plan to ensure this important Fund continues to be a safety net for unemployed Californians and for our economy, and I urge the Legislature to pass it,” he said. Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County -- The approval of a 10-million-dollar pipeline project earlier this month has shown the rising tide of a wave of development approaching Plymouth. The Plymouth Planning Commission is considering 9 development applications, including 1 commercial project and 8 housing developments with 1,100 total equivalent dwelling units among them. City Planner Paula Daneluk said the projects are in various stages of application. Handling the pipeline and other issues, the Design Guidelines were continued three times from the original date set to hear it, September 25th.

Last Thursday, planning commissioners considered expanding an area that required design review. The area has yet to be approved by the city council, and the extension would have taken that existing area from its four blocks on downtown Main Street into more than double the current area, across Highway 49 from downtown. Commissioner Marla Moreno said the city has been here 100 years and she thought the program should stop at the highway. In a public hearing, Gary Colburn said taking the program to the other side of 49, where a commercial project was proposed, would be “mixing apples and oranges.” He urged keeping a Victorian era style and said it appeared that they were trying to compromise downtown to have the two blend together. Commissioner Sandy Kyles asked Colburn to “be nice” and to not call the commissioners “ignorant.” Colburn said “you’ve got your hand in my pocket – why the hell should I try to be nice?” Kyles said they should try to work together and not call names.

Liddy D’Agostini urged commissioners to keep the historic business district downtown to draw visitors. Elida Malick of Fiddletown urged having more strict guidelines and a distinction between historic and other districts. Malick urged against having monstrous buildings. Moreno said she would like pedestrian links to downtown from the 49er Village and other areas. Kyles agreed, saying she thought connectivity by sidewalks was important, so people can walk from a hotel to a restaurant and to downtown. The commission voted 3-0 to leave the boundary design as it was in the draft design guidelines. The guidelines will be subject of city council consideration in a public hearing, which has not yet been rescheduled. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – The Plymouth Planning Commission on Thursday noted a probable need to extend the comment period on a 64-lot housing development in Plymouth, noting that late comments would be addressed and area agencies might get more time to make input. The project, Shenandoah Springs was subject of a 30-day comment period for its mitigated negative declaration. The comment period ended Thursday, with critical comments about traffic from the Amador County Public Works Department. Roger Stewart of public works hand-delivered a letter from Public Works Director Larry Peterson and read the letter to the planning commission. In the letter, Peterson said he was “deeply concerned that Amador Public Works did not receive direct notification of the negative declaration.” He reported finding errors in a draft Transportation Impact Study and he noted a clear traffic impact from Shenandoah Springs on other developments in and around Plymouth, including Arroyo Woods, Zinfandel and Cottage Glen. He said the draft TIS did not indicate who would construct the project, or its cost, so fair-share impacts could not be mitigated. City Planner Paula Daneluk said the commission could extend the comment period on the negative declaration. She also said she thought public works was notified and could not understand why it did not receive the negative declaration. Commissioners Sandy Kyles, Marla Moreno and Chairwoman Sandy Fuller commented on the 23-acre, 64-lot housing project, which would extend Miller Way from Hawk’s View and eventually end at Highway 49, in the future. Fuller asked about funding for infrastructure and Daneluk said the city was looking at an assessment district as part of the development agreement signed by the city. The struggle was to decide whether to include all projects or handle them individually. Kyles noted that a proposed park would not be finished until just before issuance of the last 5 building permits. Kyles said a finished park might be an incentive to build homes nearby. Stephanie McNair of Shenandoah Springs said from a marketing standpoint, that was a nice project amenity. But with current economic hard times, they might ask to be met half-way on the timeline. Scott Rishwain, manager of the project, said developers were “worried about making the project financially unfeasible at the outset.” He said “it’s all going to depend on the economic climate from the time we pull our first building permit.” Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County - Three cars and a motorcycle collided in front of a bike shop on Highway 88 in Jackson around 5:30pm on Tuesday. A truck in the east bound lane of Hwy 88 was waiting to turn left into the bike store lot. A jeep had stopped behind that vehicle, then a motorcycle and another pickup came lined up as well. Reports indicate that the accident occurred because the last vehicle in line did not stop in time. The impact brought the motorcycle under the white truck and the jeep was impacted from the rear, sending it forward into the other truck turning. Jackson Police were on the scene to investigate the crash. The motorcycle driver sustained injuries and was taken to Sutter Amador hospital. Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – The Sutter Creek City Council approved an annexation of 56.3 acres in Sutter Hill Monday that included the Amador Transit Mix property and two septic services, Sweet Pea and Sierra Septic on Ridge Road. The council in a 5-0 vote made a negative declaration on the project, amended its General Plan Map and adopted a resolution of application to send the request on to the Local Agency Formation Commission for approval. Councilman Pat Crosby said “This project has been a long time coming – let’s move it along and bring them into the city.” The area to be annexed, the Sutter Hill East Project, is east of Sutter Hill Road, north and south of Eureka Road and north and south of Ridge Road. City Planner Bruce Baracco said 11 properties and 11 owners were involved in the annexation, including the city of Sutter Creek, which has 12.88 acres for use as passive park land and walking trails. Zoned retail commercial in the annex are 5 acres owned by Amcal Properties, a 1.24-acre Beshears property; and 1.1- and 8.61-acre plots owned by the Brusatori family. Four plots were zoned Rural 3, or “cottage residential,” including Billigmeier’s 1.65 acres, Aguilera’s 2.33 acres, Martin’s 1.5 acres, and Schwindt’s 2.12 acres. Two Industrial 2 zoned properties included the Drake family’s 4 acres used by Amador Transit Mix, and 12.31 acres owned by the Travaskis family, housing the operations of Sweet Pea Septic and Sierra Septic Service Inc. Baracco said the area was not a development that will have to have water lines extended to it, but water service from the Amador Water Agency was on a first-come, first-served basis. Baracco said five services must be provided to the annexed area. Those are water, sewer, storm drainage, police protection and fire protection. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County -- The Amador Water Agency in early September said it was studying the possible formation of a Community Facilities District to serve the proposed Sutter Hill East Project. On Monday, a letter giving details of that study was read to the Sutter Creek City Council, before the council approved an annexation application for the project. AWA Supervising Engineer of New Business John Griffin discussed the AWA’s capacities and intentions in the area and answered questions from the City Council. City Planner Bruce Baracco said a comment letter from Griffin sent by e-mail September 12 made comments on the Sutter Hill East project. In the letter, Griffin said the annex must not be given wastewater treatment services until the agency gets service from Sutter Creek for customers in the Martell area. This is part of an agreement between the city and the AWA. He said lack of water treatment capacity and storage at the Tanner plant made it insufficient to serve the proposed annex. Instead, the AWA “is investigating creation of a Community Facilities District to pay for construction of the new Tanner Water Treatment Plant.” The expansion would add 2 million gallons a day capacity to Tanner’s current 6 million gallons a day. He said the AWA would offer membership to its facilities district to Sutter Hill East property owners. Councilman Pat Crosby asked AWA Supervising Engineer of New Business John Griffin if the AWA had a “legally binding contract with PG&E to serve Sutter Creek with water.” Griffin said he did not know but would find out and report back to the council. Griffin said the AWA does have the water capacity to serve Plymouth via pipeline with a maximum flow of 1.4 million gallons a day. Planning Commission Chairman Robin Peters he and the planning commission thought AWA’s Facilities District “seemed like a logical way to collect fees and make improvements where they are needed most.” He said some properties are not likely to be developed any time soon, while other properties in the proposed Sutter Hill East Annex are already being developed. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County - A Lodi man was arrested on charges of burglary, stalking, grand theft of a firearm and vandalism in the Pioneer area. On October 27, Amador County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a residence on Silver Drive in the Pioneer area of Amador County to investigate the report of a residential burglary. According to police reports, the “deputies noted forced entry into the residence via the front door.” The female victim reported a number of items stolen. The suspect also damaged various household items within the residence. Deputies believe the act to have been perpetrated by the victim’s estranged husband. Investigators from the Amador County Sheriff’s Office working cooperatively with Investigators from the Amador County District Attorney’s Office, were able to link the suspect in the case to physical evidence collected at the scene, said the report. Additional evidence indicated that the suspect had actually been stalking the victim. Based on the case, an Amador County Superior Court Arrest Warrant was issued for Travis Mark Cook, 29, of Lodi. On October 31, Amador County Sheriff’s Investigators arrested Cook at his home in Lodi. Sheriff’s Investigators were successful in recovering numerous items of stolen property from Cook. Cook is currently in custody at the Amador County Jail with bail set at 100,000 dollars. Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).